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Starting to play some good basketball at just the right time, the Warsaw boys basketball team played their final game at the Tiger Den for the 2025-26 season on Friday night, honoring their four seniors before hosting rival Plymouth. The Tigers sent their leaders out on a high note, defeating the Pilgrims 66-40 to pick up their second straight win and move above .500.
“It’s special. You give the seniors a chance to go out the way they want to,” Warsaw head coach Matt Moore said. “They’ve put a lot of time and energy into this and they know how fast it goes. Really proud of them.”
All four Tiger seniors began the game, including Wesley Martin, a player that hasn’t had too much time on the court this year. Warsaw’s intention to get him a basket in his final appearance at the Tiger Den were clear, and on the first possession of the game, he got an open look from beyond the arch. He drained it, much to the delight of the student section.
“We called his number on the first play for a reason. This is a kid that just loves being a part of Tiger basketball,” Moore said. “You love having kids like that around, and to see how happy his teammates were for him, it shows you the type of bond we’ve had this year.”
With the first shot of the night falling, the Tigers were off from there. The home side started the game on an 11-2 run over the first five minutes. Warsaw was playing winning basketball, plain and simple. The Tigers were winning almost every 50/50 ball, grabbing offensive rebounds to extend possessions and get extra looks and playing their signature lockdown defense.
It also didn’t hurt that the home side was shooting lights out from deep, hitting three of them in the opening period. After an exciting eight minutes, Warsaw led 20-8.
The triples continued to fall well into the second quarter, allowing the home side to extend its lead to 15. Freshman Nash Wiggins came off the bench to make a big impact, hitting his first three shots to give him a quick nine points. On the other end, Plymouth’s Kylen Ellery caught fire, but he was not able to do enough himself to prevent the Tigers from continuing to extend their advantage.
Despite Ellery’s offensive explosion, he went into the locker room leading all scorers with 13, Warsaw was doing a good enough job spreading the wealth to stay in front. With four players scoring at least five in the first half, led by nine for Wiggins and Mydin Burgher, the home side led 38-24 at the break.
Warsaw junior Sam Lara drives down the lane to the basket as Parker Bagley of Plymouth hops in to defend...NIeter
“We’re doing a great job of finding our stride. We’ve got some size, we’ve got some skill,” Moore said. “I like how we’re looking, we’ve got two games left to measure ourselves and then its go time.”
As the second half wore on, the Tigers continued to remain in front by a sizable margin. The home side slowed things down a ton in the third quarter, using the clock to their advantage as they finished off long possessions with baskets to further demoralize their opponent.
Burgher, the team’s go-to option on offense all season long, took over the game in the third. The senior was making the most of his final contest at the Tiger Den, nearly doubling his first half scoring total in the first five minutes of the second. With Burgher playing well and his teammates putting up a ton of support, the home side went up by 25 with 10 minutes left in the game.
Sam McDaniels became the fourth and final senior to score a point when he hit a three in the final minute of the third. Sophomore Drew Jones, who also put together a big quarter thanks to his rebounding and work inside, reached double figures in the final seconds of the period, giving the game a 61-31 scoreline heading into the fourth.
Plymouth played well enough offensively in the final quarter of play to prevent their rivals from breaking out the running clock, but by this point, the game had already been decided. The Tigers didn’t do much scoring of their own in the fourth, but Martin did hit his second triple of the night. With just under two minutes left in the game, he and the three other seniors were subbed out for the final time and were given a standing ovation by the crowd.
Warsaw (11-10, 4-3 NLC) is at Harrison on Friday night.
“This is a game that will test us defensively. They’ve got a pair of great scorers that we’ll have to deal with. It’ll also be a long trip, which will hopefully prepare us for making two or three trips to Northside Gym,” Moore said.
